500 Days of Summer character analysis

“500 Days of Summer” is a film based on the relationship between a man and a woman in their mid-twenties. In the opening seen, the omniscient narrator warns the audience of the outcome of the story by stating, “This is not a love story.” The main characters, Tom and Summer, both work at a Greeting Card Company. Summer is a new employee, and Tom begins to fall in love with her quirky personality and physical attractiveness. Summer only wants to be Tom’s friend with no commitments, but she treats him as if she has more intentions. Tom and Summer become the best of friends, but they also act as if they are lovers. Because of this, Tom begins to fall even more in love with Summer. Summer tells Tom that they should have distance after a while but throws in the phrase, “But you are still my best friend.” This breaks Tom’s heart. After some time, Tom meets with her again, and he still has hope that they will end up together. To his disappointment, he finds that she is in engaged to another man. Towards the end of the film, Summer finds Tom at the park, and she tells him that she is now married. At the very end, Tom is attending a job interview, and he asks a girl on a date who’s name (coincidently) happen to be “Autumn”.

The whole movie is based on what is going on in Tom’s mind. Christopher Orr observes in Atlantic magazine says, “We see the central relationship through Tom’s eyes exclusively, with Summer ultimately remaining as unknowable to us as she is to him.” Tom never gives up on believing that he and Summer were meant to have a fantasy kind of love until he finally encounters Summer as an engaged woman. He only rides on the highs of the relationship, and this leads to his own downfall. Tom won’t accept Summer’s lack of commitment and desire to be in a true romantic relationship. Orr summarizes this by saying,“We leap from Day 28 to Day 303 to Day 167 to Day 408, oscillating between early hope and ultimate despair, the sudden, unbidden revelation of love and the slow, crushing realization that it is not requited.”

Despite the film having two main characters, the cinematography only correlates with the emotions of Tom. The relationship between Tom and Summer is very confusing and uncertain, and Tom’s emotion with is a dizzy roller coaster. Orr says in his article, “ It’s been some time since I’ve seen a film that captures with such immediacy the elation and anxiety of new love, the tingle and the terror, the profound sense that you have never been more alive and the occasional wish that you could die on the spot.” The cinematography displays all of Tom’s conflicts with the different styles of images within the flashbacks, drawings, music, and picture. When Tom is high on the idea of love, the colors of the film are brighter. Summer’s wardrobe always consists of blue, like the color of her eyes, until the end when she is married and she is wearing gray. The blue clothing is a reference to the way that Tom is caught up in the appearance and beauty in the idea of Summer. In his mind he is under the illusion that she is “the one.” There are many ways to interpret the whole psychological theme of the film, but the general theme is that loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean that it is “meant to be” between you and that person.

The film is directed towards the complications and inconsistency of a relationship. It shies away from the typical Hollywood theme that “love is a fantasy,” and directs itself towards the reality that a relationship doesn’t always turn out the way a person intends it to.

A surprisingly light romantic comedy “500 Days of Summer” by American director Mark, which became his first full-length work. Although the film was a debut, it almost immediately found a positive response among the audience.

An off-screen narrator who appears at the beginning of the film warns us: “This is not a love story. This is a love story.” The phrase that became the slogan of the film. So what is it really: a love story or a breakup story?

The story of how the writer of congratulations for postcards Tom meets a girl by name (that is, translated from English as “summer”), falls in love with her. And she is not.

What is 500 Days of Summer about?

The main character Tom (played role) works as an author in a postcard company. Although he studied to be an architect. One day, a new employee named Finn (the role was played by an actress) comes to the company’s office.

The plot of the film is based on the story of Tom’s relationship and for 500 days, starting from the moment when the girl came to work in the company.

at first does not notice Tom, while he immediately feels that this meeting has become fateful. The first short conversation between the two took place in an elevator when they found out they were in love with the same band.

After the following meetings, the couple begins to meet. Unlike Tom, the girl treats their romance easier, does not want a serious relationship. She says she doesn’t believe in love, doesn’t want to be “labeled” and “doesn’t like being someone’s girlfriend”. Tom, on the contrary, falls in love with him more and more every day. He understands that he wants a serious relationship and strives for them. This difference in views leads to the fact that Tom ends the relationship.

Tom is having a hard time breaking up, he is depressed. But still, after a while, he goes to the wedding of a colleague, where they meet again. They are glad to see each other, they have a great time together. After she invites Tom to a party on the roof of her house.

Tom hopes that at this party he will be able to restore relations with. But suddenly he discovers that his ex-girlfriend is engaged. Tom can’t believe it, he gets even more depressed. A young man leaves his unloved job and decides to pursue a career as an architect. At this time, she is getting married.

The last time Tom and meet at Tom’s favorite place at the house of Fine Arts, where he brought her when they were together. Their relationship radically changed the views of both. Now Tom is sure that what he believed in does not exist, love is an illusion.

On May 23 of the following year, “the last day of summer”, Tom goes to an interview at an architecture firm. He sets up a date with a girl he met before the interview. When they get to know each other, it turns out that her name is (literally “Autumn”, or translated from English “autumn”).

Meaning of 500 Days of Summer

The name of the main character of the film is Her name means “summer” in English. “500 Days of Summer” – this is the period in the life of Tom, which he completely devoted to the thoughts of Fr.

It is interesting to note that the director of the film, Mark, does not tell us the story linearly. The plot is divided into “days”. The viewer moves back and forth, watching Tom: he is either happy with, or depressed after the break.

The light and carefree moments of the first days of acquaintance were randomly mixed with dramatic episodes from the last days.

The jumbled chronology of events can initially irritate the viewer and be incomprehensible. But upon further consideration, it turns out that it is precisely such a technique that most organically shows how different thoughts interfere in the head of a person in love, interrupting each other. It is thanks to this technique that we live the feeling of absurdity that the main character Tom experiences when the love of his life tells him that he does not want a serious relationship, “does not want to be someone’s girlfriend”, and then marries another.

All that remains for Tom is to think where he made a mistake, what he did wrong.

In pursuit of summer

“Love does not exist, it is an illusion,” he says in one of his conversations with Tom. Until the end of the film, the viewer does not understand whether the couple will be together or the characters will still part once and for all. It is worth noting that the film does not create the impression of a protracted one, since the story is told with humor and is full of unexpected plot twists.

In the last dialogue between Tom and the viewer, it can be seen that their relationship has changed the views of both. Tom is sure that what he believed in does not exist, love is an illusion. I realized that love is real.

It can be assumed that the heroine is nothing more than a wonderful memory of Tom. In fact, he doesn’t know much about her. And where did he get that she was the love of his life?

The meaning of the finale of the film “500 Days of Summer”

Throughout the film, we watched Tom run in pursuit of “summer” and a happy, serious relationship with Summer. We watch how she does not notice him at all at first, while for him, it seems, it was love at first sight.

We watch them awkwardly kiss for the first time at the photocopier, go to the movies together, go to the park, have sex in the shower, and many other little things that make Tom fall in love with Summer. We observe how he wanted to propose, but she did not fall in love with him and offered to remain friends.

Depression forces Tom to change jobs, he goes to an interview at an architectural company. Where he meets a girl named Autumn. The finale of the film “500 Days of Summer” everyone can interpret in their own way. One thing is certain: good or bad cannot last forever, life does not stand still. Day follows night, and autumn always follows summer.

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